Total Truth

I have been reading Nancy Pearcey's wonderful book, Total Truth. While there have been some great parts to the book, there have been a few aspects that I don't agree with. Recently, Katie Marie (a blog reader and friend) emailed me about a certain passage in the book. Unfortunately, Katie Marie doesn't own a blog (although I think she'd be great at it), so she and I have combined our thoughts into a joint post.

Katie and I have been discussing a particular paragraph on page 57 where Nancy states,

Artists are often the barometers of society, and by analyzing the world-views embedded in their works we can learn a great deal about how to address the modern mind more effectively. Yet many Christians critique culture one-dimensionally, from a moral perspective alone, and as a result they come across as negative and condeming. At a Christian college, I once took an English course from a professor whose idea of critiquing classic works of literature was to tabulate how many times the characters used bad language or engaged in illicit sexual relations. He seemed blind to the books' literary quality - whether or not they were good as literature. Nor did he teach us how to detect the worldviews expressed there. Similarly, a Christian radio personality recently wagged a stern finger at Elvis Presley for the immoral content of his songs, without ever asking whether his songs were good as music (which they certainly were), or raising other worldview questions, such as why popular culture has a powerful impact. When the only form of cultural commentary Christians offer is moral condemnation, no wonder we come across to non-believers as angry and scolding.

Our first response to the great works of human culture-whether in art or technology or economic productivity---should be to celebrate them as reflections of God’s own creativity.

Nancy tells us that we can and should appreciate and celebrate the value of creativity in the great works of human culture- often worldly movies, music, and paintings. While I’m not against appreciating creativity as a gift from God, I disagree with Nancy about our response and attitude to the "great works of human culture" when they contain things that are not pleasing to God. In regards to creativity, let us remember the fallen nature of man--the sin factor. Even man’s creativity is corrupted. The Bible says in Jeremiah 17:9:

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

In sin, man can use his ability of creativity in a very perverted, sick way. I’m sorry, but when such is the case our first response can not be that of "oh, lovely use of creativity there!" Wickedness is wickedness no matter how much creativity is presented. As Christians, we can not accept and study these things simply that we may "learn a great deal about how to address the modern mind more effectively". You could take a magazine that has one "great" article but the rest is all immoral and perverted. The Bible says in Psalm 101:3,

I will set no unclean thing before my eyes.

It doesn't matter the amount of creativity is in something or how many good parts to the movie or bad parts. A while back, my mom shared this story that makes my point perfectly clear,

His son wanted to watch an popular movie, it just had a few bad scenes. The son argued the show was good despite a few bad parts. That the good outweighed the bad. The father was not swayed with this argument. Instead, the following day he baked a pan of brownies for his son. Just as the son was about to bite into the delicious morsel the dad informed him that along with all the delicious chocolate and sugar he also mixed in a small portion of the doo doo from their golden retriever. The son quickly lost his appetitie for the brownie. But the dad assured him that there was just a little bit and the rest of the ingredients were very nutritious and outweighed the small portion that the dog contributed. The son quickly got the point.

While it is a little gross at first, this (true) story clearly makes my point. Just like that little bit of doo doo affected the whole pan of brownies, so does a little bit of immorality affect a book or a movie. We are not to wade through page after page or scene after scene of things that are wicked in God’s eyes in order to find their creativity and praise it. Instead, God also tells us what to do instead in Philippians 4:8:

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

Are we focusing on immersing ourselves in that which is true, honest, just, pure, and lovely as we ought to?

I agree with Nancy Pearcey, that we need to focus on God's creativity but first we must make sure that the work is from God's hand.

Others blogging this:

• Agent Tim has posted his thoughts in Part One of a series.
• Catez at Allthings 2 All has an interview of Nancy Pearcey from a while back. It's interesting to read!

Related Tags: Nancy Pearcey, Total Truth, Culture, Worldviews, Literature, Books, Movies